Can You Handle the Truth on al-Qaida and Iraq?

On April. 6, 2007, this was reported by AP:

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney repeated his assertions of al-Qaida links to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq on Thursday as the Defense Department released a report citing more evidence that the prewar government did not cooperate with the terrorist group.

Cheney contended that al-Qaida was operating in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion led by U.S. forces and that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was leading the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida. Others in al-Qaida planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organized the al-Qaida operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June,” Cheney told radio host Rush Limbaugh during an interview. “As I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq.”

____________________

Yesterday:

A US military study officially acknowledged for the first time yesterday that Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, undercutting the Bush administration's central case for war with Iraq.

The Pentagon study based on more than 600,000 documents recovered after US and UK troops toppled Hussein in 2003, discovered "no 'smoking gun' (ie, direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaida", its authors wrote.
George Bush and his senior aides have made numerous attempts to link Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda terror in their justification for waging war against Iraq.

Wary of embarrassing press coverage noting that the new study debunks those claims, the US defence department attempted to bury the release of the report yesterday.

The Pentagon cancelled a planned briefing on the study and scrapped plans to post its findings on the internet, ABC news reported. Unclassified copies of the study would be sent to interested individuals in the mail, military officials told the network.

Another Pentagon official told ABC that initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive". Here is the report Bush and the Pentagon does not want you to see.

Can you handle the truth?

al-Qaeda, the HIV of the Internet

Al-Qaeda is back? It never left. It has become the MTV of jihad. The free channel of distribution is the Internet. Leave it to the Islamic world, that produces little in technology, to corrupt the greatest communication achievement in the history of mankind. How did they do it? Some info here.

The return of al-Qaeda
by Hans de Vreij Radio Netherlands
20-07-2007

Al-Qaeda is back and continues to pose a direct threat to the United States and other Western nations. That is one of the conclusions that can be drawn from the public summary of the National Intelligence Estimate, a joint product of all 16 US civil and military intelligence services. The report itself, published earlier this week in Washington, is of course secret. But the public summary does at least put an end to a popular myth that has prevailed over the past few years.

That myth was that, after the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001 and the worldwide counter-terrorism campaigns against al-Qaeda structures and leaders, the network no longer existed as a centralised organisation able to issue orders to local structures anywhere in the world. Instead, it was portrayed as something of a "franchise", with local branches sharing the ideology and methods of al-Qaeda without necessarily receiving orders from the network leadership.

Central leadership
According to the National Intelligence Estimate, however, al-Qaeda continues to attempt to create global terrorist alliances, raise resources and recruit and indoctrinate operatives. And according to the Dutch-American terrorism expert Glenn Schoen of Ernst & Young, the re-emergence of al-Qaeda as a centrally-led network became visible as early as two years ago:

"It's now pretty clear from a number of bigger plots, really starting back with London in 2005, and the plots against the aircraft out of London to the US from August 2006, that we see more and more clearly a hand of central al-Qaeda leaders under Mr bin Laden and Mr Zawahiri playing a role. And it's become clearer and clearer, apparently, to US intelligence that there is operational direction and control to al-Qaeda and not just ideological and strategic control."

Click to listen to Hans de Vreij's interview with Glenn Schoen

Four elements
According to an official spokeswoman in Washington, elaborating on the National Intelligence Estimate, al-Qaeda has "protected or regenerated three of four key elements in planning an attack on the homeland (USA, ed.): a safe haven in Pakistan, operational lieutenants, and top leadership". Washington remains silent about the fourth element that has been protected or regenerated. According to Mr Schoen, this missing element could be al-Qaeda's public relations machinery:

"One element that is obviously of importance here is the fact that, in terms of its propaganda and the ability to exploit the message, it now has a very strong position. Whenever it carries out a major attack now, we see an awful lot of ability by al-Qaeda to turn even a minor success in a terrorist attack into a major one on the propaganda front."

Propaganda
Maurits Berger of the Clingendael Institute of International Relations in The Hague points out that propaganda or simply information from any radical jihadist network including al-Qaeda is not falling on deaf ears in the Muslim world at large:

"There is a very strong, deep-felt sense of injustice, closely connected to a concern of occupation, which lives in the minds of most Muslims, since most Muslim countries have been occupied for shorter or longer periods of time by Western countries. It is a button that can be pushed with any Muslim. Occupation is something that needs to be resisted, occupation is something that looms over their heads, any time, every time."

Click to listen to Hans de Vreij's interview with Maurits Berger

Young volunteers
Maurits Berger adds that the notion of armed resistance against what is perceived as Western occupation, dominance or imperialism is appealing to many young Muslim men and women. In this sense, he says, the situation is very similar to the one during the Civil War in Spain in the 1930's, when thousands of young foreign volunteers went to Spain to fight for socialism, without necessarily knowing exactly what was going on in that country

Reports of al-Qaeda in Latin America should not confuse the US Congress with facts.

Channel 6 News in Costa Rica is reporting that four men with false Bangladesh passports were turned away back to Nicaragua and denied entrance to Costa Rica.


Al Qaeda alert in Nicaragua

Filadelfo Aleman in Managua, Nicaragua | May 25, 2005 14:02 IST

Nicaragua's National Police declared an alert along its borders because of the "possible presence" of two suspected members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Central America, officials said Tuesday.
An Interior Ministry news release identified the two as Ahmad Salim Swaydan, suspected of involvement an April 2002 plot against the US Embassy in Thailand, and a Yemeni man known only as Altuwiti.

A photo of Swaydan released by Nicaraguan authorities matched that of a man on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list: Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, a 36-year-old Kenyan indicted on December 16, 1998 for alleged involvement in the bombings that year of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

The US State Department has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest.

Sunni and Shiite's Going after al-Qeada?

IRAQ: SUNNI TRIBES SEEK SADRIST ALLIES

Baghdad, 23 May (AKI) - A delegation of Sahwa al-Anbar, (Anbar Awakening) the tribal alliance in the restive Sunni province of Al Anbar, has made an unprecedented visit to Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of radical Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr, according to pan Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat. "We have taken this step to place national interest ahead of any differences" said the head of the US-endorsed Sunni alliance Hamid al-Hayas. "This is an effort to bring closer together the Sunni and Shiite Iraqi points of view. We want to deliver a message to all the political groups to put aside their differences and act for the common good" he said.

The whereabouts of Moqtada al-Sadr remain undisclosed, but he was represented in the meeting by three MPs from the 30-strong bloc in Parliament loyal to him and prominent individuals from the Sadr City area.

At the end of the meeting the two sides signs a joint document in which they vowed to fight the terrorism of al-Qaeda. The group has become increasingly isolated within the Sunni insurgency because of its indiscriminate targeting of civilians.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been seeking to impose its fierce Salafite philosophies and strategies and consolidate its power over the many resistance groups in the Sunni Arab galaxy, some of whom view foreign fighters and Wahhabis with suspicion.

In recent months the heads of the powerful al-Anbar tribes have coalesced in a big to counteract al-Qaeda in Iraq and have begun a tentative dialogue with some elements in the al-Maliki government about entering the political process.

As well as coming under increasing pressure from US and Iraqi forces in Baquba and elsewhere, the al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters have been increasingly in clashes with other insurgent formations.

The death cult of Islam with nuclear missiles. Worth the risk?

If you have not done so, please read the previous post and watch the video, and then think of AQ in charge of Pakistan and the thought of what happens to the nuclear missiles in Pakistan. Forget what they are saying about Iran. That is a smoke screen. The real threat is Pakistan. They just cannot say the words. If Musharraf is killed and the Islamists are in control... The West needs a defence system that works

The Telegraph
By Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, and Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense

Rice seeks to ease Moscow fears on missile system

Sixteen years after the end of the Cold War, the transatlantic community and Russia are not adversaries. Indeed, on a number of issues, we are partners.

We both face a number of common challenges, among the most threatening is the possibility that a dangerous state will use ballistic missiles, tipped with nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction, to hold our societies hostage – or worse.


Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
Make no mistake: This is a real challenge. Despite our best efforts, including notable successes in Libya and breaking up the A.Q. Khan network, weapons of mass destruction and missile capabilities continue to proliferate.

We sincerely hope that the diplomatic efforts now under way will succeed in addressing the challenges we face from states like North Korea and Iran. We have made some progress with Pyongyang, and though Teheran still defies the international community, there are signs that it is feeling the diplomatic pressure.

However, we cannot guarantee success, and governments have a responsibility to defend their people.

The logic of Cold War "Mutual Assured Destruction" does not make sense in today’s strategic environment. Today, we seek security based on more than the grim premise that we can destroy those who seek to destroy us.

We need to be clear that the missile threat from Iran is real and growing, and it is a threat not just to the United States, but to Europe and Russia as well.

Looking a few years ahead, other such missile threats will likely emerge as well. It is with these new realities in mind that we are developing and deploying modest missile defenses.

Our goal is to field systems capable of protecting not only the United States and our forces, but also friends and allies like those in the transatlantic community. We speak of the transatlantic community because we have learned that our security is not divisible; that if our allies are not secure, America is not secure. America cannot "go it alone."

To ensure our common security, we need defenses in place well before a threat fully emerges. Accordingly, we have approached some of our allies with the idea of deploying limited missile defense capabilities: 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar installation in the Czech Republic.

While the United States can defend its own territory without these additional capabilities, fielding them would enable us to extend coverage to most of Europe while providing improved protection at home.

Our strategy is to strengthen our ability to detect, defend against, and thus deter a missile attack.

Missile defenses are part of contemporary deterrence and promote stability, as we saw last summer, when we activated our system for the first time in response to North Korean missile launch preparations. In that case, our missile defense system allowed our national leadership to consider a wider, more flexible range of responses to a potential attack.

Effective defenses also reduce incentives for states to acquire missiles in the first place, by undermining their military utility and thus promoting our nonproliferation goals.

We have come a long way from early programs and tests in the 1980s and 90s. Since 2001, we have had 26 successful hit-to-kill intercepts out of 34 attempts. And 15 of the last 16 flight tests have been successful in the past couple of years.

Given this trend of success, we are confident that these systems will work, and that they will represent a practical 21st century solution to the new threat we all face. The system we have in mind is limited, and the missiles have no warhead at all. It is oriented against a potential enemy with a small arsenal, attempting to blackmail our people, sow chaos, and sap our collective will.

Development of such a limited system is realistic. Critics of this approach should also be realistic: This system is of no use against a huge nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal, such as that possessed by Russia.

Talk of a new "arms race" with Russia is anachronistic and not grounded in reality: America and Russia under the Treaty of Moscow are reducing our strategic nuclear warheads to levels not seen in decades.

Security should be—must be—discussed in a cooperative, multilateral way.

That is why the United States has consulted extensively about our plans over the last few years both with Russia and our Allies, including in Moscow, within NATO, and at the NATO-Russia Council, most recently on April 19.

NATO and Russia have had good, practical cooperation on theater missile defense for the past seven years. We look forward to continued and expanded cooperation both in NATO and with Russia.

President Bush has reaffirmed to President Putin our desire to cooperate with Russia on missile defense, and a US delegation offered new proposals for potential partnership with Russia in this area in Moscow on April 17.

We both have planned visits to Moscow to follow up and advance our consultations with the Russians – Secretary Gates recently completed a visit on April 24, and Secretary Rice will be visiting next month.

Our collective defense is too important for us to fall prey to scare tactics, slogans from the past, or attempts to drive wedges between us.

NATO has a role in missile defense. So do bilateral arrangements between America, our Allies, and hopefully also with Russia.

We all face an emerging common threat, and America has proposed a practical solution.

Europe, above all, must know – based on its own modern history - that the time to cooperate is now, not when the threat is imminent.

Goodbye Green Zone

If this is true, "Goodbye little green zone."

Al-Qaida-linked group making own rockets

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago

CAIRO, Egypt - A voice purported to be of the leader of an al-Qaida-linked group in
Iraq claimed in an audiotape posted on the Internet Tuesday that the group had begun manufacturing its own rockets.

The voice, said to be that of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, was in an audiotape posted on an Islamic Web site routinely used by militant Islamic groups. The authenticity of the tape could not immediately be verified.

The rockets, called al-Quds-1, or Jerusalem-1, "have moved into the phase of military production with an advanced degree of range and accuracy," he said.

The claim that the group was making rockets would be virtually impossible to verify and al-Baghdadi did not elaborate further on the nature of the new weapon.

The arms manufacturing capabilities of insurgent groups fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces since 2003 are believed to be very limited, with them relying almost entirely on weapons looted from Saddam Hussein's massive depots in the lawless days and weeks that followed the collapse of his regime.

Weapons are also believed to be smuggled from across the Syrian and Iranian borders.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had been employed in Saddam's huge arms industry, making artillery shells, rifles, land mines, mortars and missiles. The military factories have been abandoned or looted but some of the workers are thought to have joined the insurgency or offered their expertise in the fight against U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies.

Insurgent groups in Iraq have been using a range of Soviet-era rockets like Katyusha and shoulder-fired ground-to-air Sam-7 missiles. The ground-to-ground Katyushas have not been used with great accuracy and anything that the insurgents could make locally was not likely to be an improvement.

Iraqi soldier leads a suspected al-Qaida member in Baqouba, Sunday, April 15, 2007. Seven militant were killed and 26 were arrested after clashes broke out with Iraqi forces backed by the US troops in Baqouba Sunday.